# PNP 610- Multimorphic's P3 Portal Top 5 Rad + Oh & Don't 4get the BAD!

**Source:** Poor Man's Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-03-18  
**Duration:** 40m 29s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://poormanspinballpodcast.libsyn.com/pnp-610-multimorphics-p3-portal-top-5-rad-oh-dont-4get-the-bad

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## Analysis

Orbital Albert from the Pinball Nerds Podcast delivers an enthusiastic top-five ranked list of Portal Pinball's best features (Brad Albright's artwork, the spinning cube toy, Mark Silk's voice work, the ball lock system, and Scott Denise's design), while arguing the game will attract younger Portal fans to pinball—directly challenging Kaneda's claim that it won't. He discusses the extended vs. standard P3 pricing debate and praises the game as the ideal match of IP to P3 platform technology.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Portal will bring in younger, newer demographics to pinball, unlike classic rock/metal IP machines like Aerosmith or Metallica — _Orby directly cites Josh from Loser Kid Pinball supporting this view and explicitly states he disagrees with Kaneda's assertion that Portal won't bring new players_
- [HIGH] Portal's extended version adds approximately 3 toys/features (extra flipper, extra ramp, extra spinner) worth ~$1,800 USD additional cost — _Orby estimates the extended version costs about $1,800 more and explicitly lists the added mechanical elements_
- [MEDIUM] Mark Silk's voice work and Scott Denise's music/sound design are among the best callouts and audio design in recent pinball history — _Orby compares them favorably to Black Knight: Sword of Rage callouts and states they 'might even be better'_
- [HIGH] Brad Albright's pastel, muted three-tone color palette perfectly matches the Portal video game aesthetic — _Orby praises the artwork fit and notes this is superior to some other P3 games where screen and playfield artwork don't align as well_
- [MEDIUM] Portal is the most appropriate IP match for P3 Multimorphic's video game integration technology — _Orby states 'could there be a better video game for p3 multimorphics technology' and notes Portal is the right platform/IP pairing unlike other manufacturer/IP combinations_
- [MEDIUM] Ian Harrower being a tournament-level player and co-designer suggests Portal will likely be the P3's most beloved tournament game — _Orby notes Harrower's tournament credentials and co-designer status implies the game is well-balanced for competitive play_
- [MEDIUM] Portal has 6 toys interacting with the ball in standard version, 8 in extended version — _Orby attempts to count toys but acknowledges uncertainty about what qualifies as a 'toy'_
- [MEDIUM] Portal features two distinct ramp paths that both feed the same ball lock—a unique feature Orby cannot recall on any other pinball machine — _Orby credits Ian Harrower from Loser Kid interview for explaining this dual-ramp lock mechanic_

### Notable Quotes

> "You're such a Portal nerd, and that's totally acceptable. especially here on the Pinball Nerds podcast."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~2:30
> _Sets inclusive tone; distinguishes 'nerd' (cool/accepted) from 'dork' (antisocial), establishing community values_

> "He said on his Facebook page...he does not think that this will bring in anyone new to pinball he is absolutely 100% wrong"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~52:00
> _Direct refutation of Kaneda's claim; core disagreement about Portal's market impact_

> "I cannot think of a single game on planet Earth where there is two different ramp shots to get the ball into one physical lock."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~45:00
> _Highlights unique mechanical design feature; shows detailed playfield knowledge_

> "Could there be a better video game for p3 multimorphics technology...no no no no this one time i think everybody can agree that p3 was the right company"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~50:30
> _Endorsement of Portal as ideal IP-platform match; suggests franchise-platform alignment matters_

> "Mark Silk's voice is perfect to be kind of funny, to be kind of cheeky...these probably rival [Black Knight callouts] they might even be better"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~38:00
> _High praise for voice acting; compares favorably to legendary game audio design_

> "I've never seriously considered buying a P3 Multimorphic until yesterday. And now if I had $20,000..."
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~56:00
> _Portal's value proposition shifts Orby's P3 purchasing calculus; signals potential market appeal_

> "I think we've hit the TSN, ESPN 27, tipping point [for P3 value]"
> — **Orbital Albert**, ~58:00
> _Assessment that P3 ecosystem has reached cost-benefit inflection for collectors_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Orbital Albert | person | Host of Pinball Nerds Podcast; lead speaker; co-founder of Poor Man's Pinball Network |
| Ian Harrower | person | Co-designer of Portal Pinball; tournament-level player; tribe member of Poor Man's Pinball Network; rules/code designer |
| Steven Silver | person | Co-designer of Portal Pinball; tribe member of Poor Man's Pinball Network |
| Brad Albright | person | Artist for Portal Pinball; creates 3D art, disc golf discs, pinball posters; Orby credits him with pastel, muted aesthetic fit |
| Mark Silk | person | Voice actor/audio engineer for Portal Pinball; previously interviewed by Orby on Pinball Nerds; provides GLaDOS-style callouts |
| Scott Denise | person | Music/sound designer for Portal Pinball; also designed Final Resistance for P3; Orby praises industrial/techno style |
| Carrie Hardy | person | Portal enthusiast; appeared on Loser Kid Pinball interview; streams Portal gameplay on YouTube |
| Josh Larson | person | Co-host of Loser Kid Pinball Podcast; believes Portal will attract younger/newer demographics to pinball |
| Kaneda | person | Pinball personality/streamer; claimed Portal won't bring new players to pinball; Orby directly disputes this |
| Multimorphic | company | Manufacturer of P3 modular pinball platform; Portal is their newest release; praised as ideal match for video game IP |
| Portal Pinball | game | Latest Multimorphic P3 module; based on Valve's Portal video game franchise; features spinning cube toy, dual-ramp locks, extended version with extra flipper |
| Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast featuring hour-and-a-half interview with Portal's three co-designers; Orby credits as deeper source than teaser videos |
| Pinball Nerds Podcast | organization | Hosted by Orbital Albert; part of Poor Man's Pinball Network; episode 410 according to opening |
| Poor Man's Pinball Network | organization | Podcast network founded by Orby; includes Pinball Nerds; two Portal designers are tribe members |
| Death Save Pinball Streaming | organization | Donor to Orby's pledge drive; provided $50 USD to support show |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Orby recommends visiting to try both Portal standard and extended versions before purchase |
| Princess Bride Pinball | game | Multimorphic P3 title; Orby's wife's favorite movie; ~$3k less expensive than Portal; compares ball lock favorably to Portal |
| Weird Al Pinball | game | Multimorphic P3 title; Orby suggests buying as part of P3 ecosystem value proposition |
| Heist Pinball | game | Multimorphic P3 title with crane toy; Orby believes Portal's spinning cube is cooler; won Game of the Year accolades |
| Black Knight: Sword of Rage | game | Referenced as having excellent callouts; Orby compares Portal's audio favorably to it |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Long-time listener; Orby jokes only he and Glenn the Skateboarder have listened to all 600+ episodes |
| Glenn the Skateboarder | person | Long-time listener; Orby credits with staying through all 600+ episodes |
| Danielle | person | Orby's wife; helping retrieve supplies during freezing rain; depicted as supportive |
| Drop Target Danielle | person | Possibly same as Danielle; referenced as 'home from work today' helping with podcast logistics |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Portal Pinball design and features, Multimorphic P3 platform economics and value proposition, Portal IP fit for pinball platform and market appeal to younger demographics, Mark Silk's voice acting and audio design quality, Brad Albright's artistic direction and color palette
- **Secondary:** Extended vs. standard P3 pricing and features, Comparison of Portal to other P3 titles (Princess Bride, Weird Al, Heist), Pinball podcast network and community content creation

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.88) — Orbital Albert is effusively enthusiastic about Portal Pinball throughout, praising nearly every design element. The only criticism is the extended version's $1,800 price premium, which he presents as a consideration rather than a flaw. His disagreement with Kaneda is spirited but not hostile. Personal struggles (maple syrup production, weather, pledge drive) add warmth and relatability but don't diminish positivity toward the game.

### Signals

- **[sentiment_shift]** Strong positive reception to Portal from Loser Kid Pinball interview and content creators (Carrie Hardy, Josh Larson); Orby's enthusiasm for designer collaboration (Silver, Harrower as tribe members) reflects deep community investment (confidence: high) — Orby credits Loser Kid interview for deeper appreciation; praises designers' credentials; notes both designers are Poor Man's Pinball tribe members
- **[competitive_signal]** Ian Harrower's role as both tournament player and co-designer suggests Portal will likely be P3's most competitive/tournament-friendly title, signaling intentional design for tournament viability (confidence: medium) — Orby states: 'because he's such a good tournament player, that means that this will most likely be their most beloved tournament game as well'
- **[design_philosophy]** Brad Albright's pastel, muted three-tone color palette for Portal perfectly mirrors the video game aesthetic, and Orby notes this alignment success contrasts with other P3 games where screen and playfield artwork misalign (confidence: high) — Orby explicitly states: 'some of the other P3 Multimorphic games some of them I have not felt like the screen and the artwork really like 100% matched' but 'everything fit all the colors all the tones everything fits' on Portal
- **[market_signal]** Portal's IP appeal to 25-50 year-old Portal fanbase (vs. 50+ for classic rock/metal IP) could introduce younger demographics to pinball, contrasting Kaneda's claim (confidence: medium) — Orby argues Portal fans average 25-50 years old vs. nostalgia-driven classic IP fans, and Josh Larson (Loser Kid) supports demographic shift theory
- **[community_signal]** Orby has never seriously considered P3 purchase until Portal; game's IP and design quality have shifted his acquisition calculus from Stern Pro focus to P3 ecosystem consideration (confidence: high) — Orby states: 'I've never seriously considered buying a P3 Multimorphic until yesterday. And now if I had $20,000...would I buy this and then get...The Princess Bride for only 3k more'
- **[market_signal]** Extended P3 Portal costs ~$1,800 USD more (~$2,500 CAD) vs. standard, equivalent to cost of used entry-level solid-state pinball; represents significant pricing barrier for casual buyers (confidence: high) — Orby states extended version adds $1,800 USD and notes 'You can buy a decent solid state pinball machine...up here in Canada for two and a half to three grand' for the same add-on cost
- **[product_strategy]** Portal's dual-ramp, single-lock mechanic is claimed to be unique and represents significant mechanical innovation on P3 platform (confidence: medium) — Orby states: 'I cannot think of a single game on planet Earth where there is two different ramp shots to get the ball into one physical lock'
- **[product_strategy]** Portal extended version adds three mechanical features (extra flipper, raised/lowered bridge ramp, extra spinner/orbit) that meaningfully expand playfield options and shot variety (confidence: high) — Orby lists: 'the spinner, the extra orbit shot, the extra thing that brings the ball back to your flipper, and the extra ramp that goes up and down' and notes these enable shots 'you couldn't have before'
- **[technology_signal]** Portal demonstrates P3's growing sophistication with animated interactive toys (spinning cube with screen capable of blinking, looking left/right, tracking ball, expressing emotions) that blur line between mechanical and digital gameplay (confidence: high) — Orby extensively describes cube's capabilities: 'The screen on it can make the eye blink or look left or look right' and 'it can follow the ball, that can taunt you, that can blink at you, that can have emotions'
- **[licensing_signal]** Portal IP licensing appears to have enabled Multimorphic to integrate video game assets (animated GLaDOS cube with screen, voice integration) that align perfectly with P3's digital capabilities (confidence: medium) — Orby praises Portal as 'could there be a better video game for p3 multimorphics technology' and notes this is the franchise-platform alignment that 'everybody can agree' is right

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## Transcript

 All get around, he's on the rebound, hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby, pinball now to rejoice, he's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee, mixed with syrup and honey, he wants to laugh with his family in a random tangent, stories of his boys, he's on the poor man's pod network, we're gonna get more listeners, for the Pinball Nerds Podcast. Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, to episode 410 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name's Orbital Albert, and on today's show, I'm so excited to be talking about P3 Multimorphic's newest pinball machine, Portal. Now, to be fair, I have to let you all know, I am very, very excited about this pin. But also, I'm part of the Poor Man's Pinball tribe, of course. And so are two of the three designers. What are the chances of that? Stephen Silver and Ian Haywer are both tribe members right here on the Poor Man's Pinball Network. Your favorite pinball network, right? Top two. We're in the top two anyways, right? Anyways, I was so excited. I went over there and I watched, and you should as well if you haven't, go check out the interview with all three co-designers over there on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. That was great. Kerry Hardy jumped in as well, and he was literally using the term, I think Josh was saying, you're such a Portal nerd, right? You're such a nerd for Portal, and he was like, yeah, I'm a total dork for Portal. Come on! Dorks are dweebs, nerds are cool. Get with it, brah. You are a nerd for Portal. You're not a dork for Portal. You're not in the corner like, I only play Portal. I don't even like enjoying life. I only just play this Portal game. No, you're a Portal nerd, and that's totally acceptable. especially here on the Pinball Nerds podcast. All right, so let's just get right into it. We're going to get into the top five. First of all, I will let you know, the last thing I wanted to do after boiling off maple sap for 11 hours and 40 minutes, we did a pause last night at 10 p.m. and I started again this morning at 7.20. I promised to do a podcast within 24 hours if I got at least one donation. And believe it or not, I can believe it because you guys are so generous and you're so rad, I did get a donation. And I'm going to talk about that near the end because I want to give them a little bit more time and a little bit more energy. But for right now, I want to jump into, that's right, Portal Top 5. Let's go. Okay, so number five on this list. And this was a tough list to make. I started making it. I went back, started making it, went back. Number five on this list on how rad I think they are. And this was very tough to make. But number five is Brad Brad Albright's, I'm pretty sure that's the artist. I was on the P3 page and didn't see it there, but I'm 99% sure that's who they mentioned. He's really cool. He does 3D art that a lot of you have seen at pinball expos and shows before. He also does, I believe he does a lot of like froth discs, good old disc golf discs, custom disc golf discs. I think he also does a lot of really cool, you know, pinball related, like for other, I know he's done posters for other shows and stuff like that as well. So he is a really good artist, and I think he was a very, very good fit for this art. There's a lot of pastels. It's very toned down. It's very muted. If you've played the game, it's like there's not very much. There's like no artwork on the walls. The odd time you get to see, you know, red blood. The game is, for the most part, three-toned, and I think that this pinball machine, for the most part, is three-toned. so you'll notice a theme going here but number five is certainly Brad Brad Albright's artwork because it is so freaking fitting and I will say this some of the other P3 Multimorphic games some of them I have not felt like the screen and the artwork really like 100% matched and you'll see that in non-P3 Multimorphic games as well with just where they have a different playfield artist than they do from the cab and the back glass but wow everything fit all the colors all the tones everything fits Congratulations to everybody who programmed that big giant screen in the middle of the play field. And I'll say the bottom, the bottom two-thirds anyways. And obviously, Brad Allwright. And right on cue, Franchi is waking up, it seems like. But, you know, that's what happens. Dogs, they go for a nap and then sometimes they wake up. But let's go on to number four, okay? Number four is the spinning cube in the back right-hand corner there. It's so awesome. I would venture a guess to say that screen can do more than we've seen in this quick teaser video, this format video that we saw. I really do believe that it probably can do even more than that. But it's so neat because it can turn left. It can turn right. The screen on it can make the eye blink or look left or look right. So they really somehow, I don't know how you make a cube have personality. I guess if you think about the robot in WALL-E the Disney animated classic WALL-E if you think about it in that particular movie it's a little tiny robot and it has a lot of character and it has a lot of charm and I think this cute little robotic dude is kind of like that and moving on to number three moving right along here let's not drag our heels on this episode I've done too many episodes in the last few days Sorry, everybody. Hey, I promised if y'all hooked me up one more time, I'd be back for another show. And here I am, back for another show. But number three is directly related to how rad that cool spinning cube is. And there's so many toys that interact with the ball that I could have chose other than this one. But this is just the one that just... I think if you're walking by and you're a Portal fan, you're like, oh my god, I have to go play this game. Even if you've never played pinball for years, you'd have to go just like... Even if it was going to be a pain in the butt, and you'd have to take money out from a bank machine and pay a stupid highway robbery $3 fee just to get your money to go over to get some coins, you'd still do it because it just draws you in. I think it is cooler, and I could be wrong. I'd have to play both to know. But I think it might be cooler than that giant crane in Heist. And Heist isn't a theme that any of us are nostalgic for. And unless you're a crane operator, you're not really nostalgic for cranes. Shout out to you crane operators there. But like, you know what I mean? But anyone who played Portal is nostalgic for that cube that's going to kind of be your buddy, but kind of be a smart ass, kind of be funny and silly and goofy. And that brings me to point number three, is not just Scott Danesi on the music, but wow, Marc Silk. That's right. My boy, Marc Silk, who I got to interview last year, right here on the Pinball Nerds podcast. He came and chatted with Orby, and it was such a fun show. He was even kind enough to record it on his side, and he actually, like, I don't know, he did some magic. He knows, surprise, surprise, a lot more about audio than me, and he sent me the file, and I re-uploaded it. And I know some of you listened to both of it, and you know the one that Marc Silk sounded silky smooth. Sorry for the pun, buddy. But no, I love Marc Silk. I actually have a Marc Silk autographed Star Wars card that he was talking, he told this really cool story about being in the room with George Lucas and they were eating wagon wheels or something. I don't know. There was something about a snack or food or something. I like to think, like, you know, wouldn't it have been so cool if he was in the room while this was signed? Obviously, that's probably not how it happened. But he did tell another story another time about being at the Topps offices where they had printed the cards and speaking to the gentleman who was getting him to sign them about how his son loved Bob the Builder and then he called him. And so there is this cool, unique, like these cards were signed at a very famous place that almost every sports star on planet Earth has visited to sign. I don't know, maybe they have an LA office. I'm sure they do. Or if you're a big enough star, I happen to know, they will send out people to go get stuff signed, of course. But what I'm getting at is that I have this really cool card that I am going to include in the Pinball Nerds podcast trading cards. Coming out soon, hopefully. We're getting there. I know I've said that for a long time. Jeez Louise. I can never get mad at a pinball company again for taking a long time to get their machines to people, can I? So, anyways, number... Well, I didn't take anyone's money, but I have promised when it was going to come out. But number three, of course, is Marc Silk. Marc Silk's voice is perfect to be kind of funny, to be kind of cheeky. It's close enough. It's similar-ish in mannerisms and vocal tonality. Is that a word? I hope it is. It is very similar to the actual robot that's kind of... Is he on your side? I don't know. He keeps promising cake, but you never seem to get it. But I only played Portal 1, Portal 2 maybe a handful of times. Portal 1 I got really into, and Portal 1 was... All the portals are such a great game to play in a party or get-together or hanging out with your buds atmosphere, because they're all like a puzzle. So even though one of you in the room can be operating the controller, the other guys can be like, no, no, no, no, try shooting your gun here, then you'll fall out here, and that will cause this Rube Goldberg effect to happen to move this cube over to cause... You know what I mean? And it's really cool like that. So I highly recommend, if you're listening to this right now, I'm sure you can go get it on Steam for probably really cheap. Go get Portal 1 and just play through it a little bit You know what I mean Just play even just for like half an hour 45 minutes You probably get addicted to it and fall in love with it especially if like I know Kerry Hardy was saying on the Loser Kid interview that he just happens to absolutely love, I think one of my kids is vacuuming while I'm doing this podcast. Ironically, they probably vacuum way less than they should. The chances of them actually starting to vacuum while I'm podcasting is astronomically low. Honey, is one of the kids vacuuming? You know what it is? I think I've been up too long with the maple sap. It's the fan on my laptop. Oh, my God. Okay, have another gummy. All right, here we go. Sorry, at least I got a laugh out of Danielle. All right. Sorry. And honey, was it Death Flip? Death Save. Death Save Pinball Streaming. Yes. Death Save Pinball Streaming. Wanted to give them a huge shout out now that we're about halfway through the list. Because of Death Save Pinball Streaming, I am back here bringing you another show today. They popped me off 50 cents. I'm worth a classic game of pinball to them, which, you know, that's fine. That's totally fair. I've had some great EM games and solid state games in my life. I ended up getting another $25 American, which works out to be $34 Canadian, which means my pledge drive to get to $500 Canadian for my last 50 shows over the last year. I only do this once a year. I'm like PBS, okay? We're getting closer. We're up to just short of $375. So I've got $125 Canadian to go, about $100 American to go. So if you're listening today and you want me to shut up and not talk about the pledge drive anymore, Believe me, I hate talking about it. Probably worse than you hate listening to it. That's why I only do it once a year so I never... I can be like PBS and be commercial free for the whole rest of the year. It's going to be great. You could help support me and support the show if you enjoy my straightforward style and you think that I deserve a small tip for all the hard work I do. I would love to get 50 cents per show in the last year, which is 25 American, or a dollar per show if you could be up at that level, or like Antonio, my dude, thank you, giving me, because he's got to get shout-outs in more than one show for that. Come on, come on. This dude, and you know what? At the end of the pledge drive, I'm going to mention everybody again, so you're going to get like double, triple, quadruple shout-outs, especially to the people who donated first. But Antonio, can't forget that name because he gave me two buckaroonos per show, a toonie per show. Thank you. And I will say this. Not that I'm disappointed or I expect anything, but I'd like a tip and I'm allowed to ask for it. I have not got a single solitary tip from anyone outside of America. I haven't got a single solitary tip from an Australian. And I know quite a few listen. Oh, wait. No, did I? No. No. Okay. I've been messaging. I was talking to a friend over there a little bit, but I don't believe. I could be wrong. Message me if I'm wrong, guys. But no, none from Australia. None from the UK. None from Europe. None from Sweden, Norway, Denmark. None from Holland, Germany. how come Belgium Belgium get in here Belgium what about Belkibar Takamus from Mepos why have I got no Donos from Mepos let's go perfect strangers alright let's get back into that list you can PayPal me at angryalpacatea spelled like the drink tea at gmail.com I will put a link in there I'll stop linking and talk about it when we hit 500 it just takes one generous person in the United States or not to fire me off 100 bucks or two of you to fire me off 50 or five of you to fire me off 25 and we're done or four of you sorry i can't do math right now i've been up way too many hours um but wow it smells good it looks good i think we got just we started with 50 gallons or 47 gallons i think we got just under a gallon probably closer to like 1.5 liters which isn't horrible but for the amount of time I spent, the amount of... It is solar-powered. It's canine-assisted because Draco and Luna Elowen come with us. It's canine-assisted, but it is primarily... Well, all the burn-off today was done by solar, right? So we are solar-powered, Maple. It's incredible. It's not for sale yet. Don't message me. I have one friend in Fredericton who is basically begging for some who I'm going to bring. I am going there for the tournament on the 22nd. That is in four days. Oh my god. Hayden and Owen are both coming with me, which I'm so excited about. Unless there's another freezing rainstorm like today, where if you don't have those metal spikes on your tires, you probably shouldn't even leave anyways. I was going to try to beg Drop Target Danielle, who's home from work today, thankfully, to help me with Draco, so I can actually record this podcast for you. Because school is canceled through our hole. There's freezing rain everywhere. But I'm going to try to attempt to talk her into using some of these amazing American funds. You would not believe what we pay now. It's $8 for a bag of Doritos. eight dollars I don't even think the tariffs are here yet and it's eight bucks now this isn't my variety store in my local town but we can't get to the big city Danielle's gonna hustle up there before the Carl Weathers gets too bad take our son's car which has the ice spikes just in case it's worse you know it's only a five minute drive but in case it's worse down there and what she's gonna do is she's gonna grab me some Doritos and some Pepsi and that's like that's all I need to stay home for the day and they're both American products and they're gonna come out of the money that we've got so far, which is just incredible, because it's gross and disgusting as Big 8 Root Beer is, you can't have any Big 8 Root Beer out here because they don't have it at the little store. So if I didn't have this little reserve of American funds to support American money with American tips from the awesome Americans who listen to this show, then I wouldn't be able to go do something like this today because there's no way I'm letting her travel an hour round trip to get to the closest grocery store so we don't have to spend eight bucks on a bag of chips or get some chips that are locally made, right? because I highly doubt they have covered bridge there maybe maybe let's get back into it though number uh three on the list was Marc Silk doing honestly I think the coolest call outs I've ever heard maybe in pinball definitely in a very very very long time maybe best call out since like was it Ed Ed Robertson uh no who was it Jeff Teolas and Ed Robertson or Ed Ed Robertson was directing the people from Black Knight Sword of Rage I don't know but was it Jeff that does a call to that no maybe the black knight sword may was it Steve Ritchie the black knight sword of rage callouts are absolutely incredible they're super funny and i think these probably rival them they might even be better congratulations golf clap for Marc Silk and scott denisi scott denisi's like industrial style like techno like that perfectly fits portal that's like the type of music that was like in the background and it kind of makes you feel like you're in like this um i don't know like this they probably gonna lose a few people here but like a back rooms type element where all the rooms are empty and it just it looks nostalgic to something but you don't know what and this type of pounding techno industrial type nine inch nails meets cotton eye joe or something i don't know okay cotton eye joe is totally wrong but like sometimes i'm trying to think of like a good house musician, you know what I mean? Meets techno, meets kind of industrial. That's the perfect for this. So not only do they have the perfect artist, then they have the perfect toy, that spinning little cube helper robotic dude with the screen on it and everything else that can follow the ball, that can taunt you, that can blink at you, that can have emotions, that can be funny, that you actually feel like there's a word for when you take something non-human and give it humanistic uh characteristics and this thing like i feel for it that most humans i've ever met like and i've only just seen a four minute video of it so cute they nailed this like they nailed this this without a doubt like i and i think i i think it is its best shooter but i have not shot it so i don't know that to be true for sure but i think it is its best shooter but without a doubt this is the coolest toys like there was like two or three really cool toys on Weird Al. At least that one really, really cool shoot-em-tank toy on Scott Danesi's Final Resistance. The Princess Bride. Okay, see, the Princess Bride does have that rad mech where the ball slowly goes up the cliff, but I still think overall that cute little spinning robot is better. And the only thing better than that would probably be coming in at number two on my list is all of the rad toys, including my favorite toy on there, which, you know, I did its own segment for it, but it doesn't actually physically touch the ball, even though it does follow and track it and interact with it that way, but my favorite thing is just how many toys there is. If you look at the extended version, which has a bridge that comes down, that's a, it's not a drawbridge, but it is, because it does draw itself up and down, but it looks like it's usually down, but sometimes goes up, either to make more shots or just to be cool or funny or whatever, just to make it more interesting, but then the extended version that comes down gives you also an extra spinner on the left but then more most importantly maybe more important than even the ramp even though the ramp is really cool it gives you an extra flipper so it allows for all these extra shots you couldn't have before so I do believe that if you have the money to get a p3 multimorphic you're probably going to have the money to get the extended version and I think most people will want to get that even though I know me myself I am so well let's just say Dutch and you know not as well off maybe is the average person who owns a p3 multi morphic I would probably just get the regular one I don't know I would have to play both I would have to play both and that why I go back to saying what I always say play before you pay if I were you I think it would be very very very smart to try to make it to Texas Pinball Fest If you live anywhere in the southern part of the United States make it there and play both versions Hopefully they'll have both versions there. Or if you just play the version with the extended, you can decide if the spinner, the extra orbit shot, the extra thing that brings the ball back to your flipper, and the extra ramp that goes up and down, you can decide if that's worth the extra, I think it's like $1,800 US. So that's almost like two and a half grand Canadian. Like that's quite a bit. You can buy a decent solid state pinball machine, not like a really good, but like a decent player's condition one up here in Canada for two and a half to three grand. So, and that's just to add like those three things. So I don't know. That's the one thing that like, but you know what? Let's finish talking about the good things. There's not one, but I love this. I believe it was Ian that said this on the Loser Kid interview. Not one, but there's two different ways to ricochet and hit a shot that ramps up and goes off of either the ramp on the left, I think it can lift while the ball's coming at it or something, or it can shoot balls up onto the ball lock. And then there's the other ramp that's right by the vertical line at the back there, and it shoots balls up. And it's so cool because I cannot think of a single game on planet Earth where there is two different ramp shots to get the ball into one physical lock. and then when that physical lock multiball starts oh my god visually that's a performance that's really interesting really cool really unique really different just how all the balls come out I guess maybe I'm thinking it'd kind of be like the only the only ball lock that I can think that's maybe cooler than that would be either spookies from evil dead which obviously that was fairly recent with the whole you know where they're up on the porch and everything with the uh rocking chair or the rocking whatever that hanging thing is and also probably teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where the balls get stuck on the pizza and spin around. But like, it's a really cool ball start, so it's got that. But then it also has this captive ball on the right-hand side, where if you hit the captive ball, it disappears and comes out and goes up the back glass, it comes back. Now, is it the exact same ball? Probably not. Are they using a little bit of what we call P3 Multimorphic Magic? I would assume so, because obviously the ball's not really going to the back glass. I don't think there's a hundred subways in the game, but part of that toy because you're actually hitting the captive ball to make it go do that the fact that they've integrated this so well like could there be a better video game for p3 multimorphics technology like quite often you hear a pinball podcast or personality or youtuber and they'll say you know what if only so and so got this theme oh if only stern got this or if only jjp got this or if only spooky got it right no no no no this one time i think everybody can agree that p3 was the right company and the right system the right console whatever you want to call it to do portal now do i think portal's as good of a theme as the princess bride no do i think portal is as good good of a theme as Weird Alves? No. But I do think it's a better theme than probably any of the other ones they've got. Sorry, Birdwatcher or any of the other... Heist was pretty cool. You know what I mean? And I am excited to play many of those other games, but I'll tell you what. The one thing that Kaneda said on his livestream that I really disagreed with last night was he said on his Facebook page with his portal chat that he does not think that this will bring in anyone new to pinball he is absolutely 100% wrong and josh said it best on loser kid he said wow he believes this will bring in some newer younger dynamics some some interesting people into pinball that wasn't his exact words he believes that that will happen and i believe it will happen because of portal because people who are fans of portal are probably i'm probably on the upper limit of their average age around 45 to 50 i'm sure there is rad dudes in their 60s and 70s who play portal and love it and are way better than me at it i'm just saying on average probably the upper limit is 45 to 50 the lower limit for people who even even people who got into it at the second game they're probably at least 25 to about 30 so now we're introducing like there's no one who's 25 or 30 who's like craving an aerosmith pinball machine or craving Metallica. Do you know what I mean? Where there's lots of people who are nostalgic for Portal. They played one and two and three and four and five. I don't know how many there was, but they played all of them and they loved them and they enjoyed them. Now, are they nostalgic for it like they would be, say, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog? Of course not. But they're still very, very, very excited to see if you're a pinball nerd already and you kind of like Portal, you're just on the edge like me where I think I played it like five or six times over three months at my buddy's houses for like two or three hours each time then we switched to a new game. So I never like played it. I might have played it at home for like a month, maybe. But I loved it. I loved it a lot, but I don't ever think about it. In fact, when I heard about that, I had to like, I had to go watch Kerry Hardy's live stream of him playing it, which you guys can go watch on his YouTube channel to go watch him play it. that'll actually, if you don't want to pay for it on Steam, you can just go watch him play the first few levels and you get an idea for how cool of a game it is. It's like, it's less hand-eye coordination and more of a puzzle game, basically. But such a cool game. So many toys. So many toys. I was counting it. With the extended version, you've arguably got eight toys that interact with the ball. With the non-extended version, you still have six. I'm trying to think, like, do you count the spinner as a... the flipper definitely, the added flipper definitely, the added ramp definitely, you know, because, especially because the ramp goes up and down, it's arguable whether a ramp is a toy if it's not going up and down, but man, if it goes up and down, it looks cooler than a scram, and the scram is the coolest toy on Avatar, then by, just by that meaning, then geez, this up and down drawbridge type ramp has to be, right? So this is the final one, and some people are going to say, oh, you know, you're just a show, and I kind of am. I have been a fan of almost everything Scott Denisey has done since I've gotten to pinball, including but not limited to TNA, of course, the very first pinball machine I ever got to live stream. And for many of you know how deep I end up getting into live streaming and how much I love doing live streams, you'll know that my very first, a couple, maybe five of you listening to this, if that, four of you. Brad Hopkins would know if he still listens. I highly doubt he listens to every episode. Who could endure 600 episodes of Orby other than Christopher Franchi and Glenn the Skateboarder? I think they're the only two of them that stayed on the whole time. So I salute both of you. Thank you so much for all your support. Everyone else, you know, they'll come for an episode here, an episode there, especially when I do a top five rad and one bad of a new pin. A lot of people like to hear that, and I like to be the first person out with a show. This time I wasn't, and that was okay, because instead of me doing a top five rad and one bad after only seeing a four-minute teaser video, I got to listen to Loser Kid interview them for an hour and a half and learn even more about the game, make me fall in love with it even more. And before I give you number one on the list, a big, huge asterisk I have to add here is Ian Herwer, a buddy of mine, who I've got to play lots of tournament pinball with, him being there and him being co-designer, not just doing the rules and not just doing the code, but actually, like, because he's such a good tournament player, that means that this will most likely be their most beloved tournament game as well, I would assume, right? So, that's just another reason that, like, I've never seriously considered buying a P3 Multimorphic until yesterday. And now if I had, now it is quite expensive, we're going to get to that in a minute, But if I had $20,000, I honestly probably would buy like two Stern Pros. Maybe one used, maybe one new, something like that, right? But now it's got me thinking, wow, but if I had $30,000, would I buy, you know, use Stern Pros go for between $8,500 to $9,500 here in Canada. So if I had 30k, or let's just say I had 20k American, would I buy three or four used Stern Pros? Or would I buy this and then get probably my wife's favorite movie of all time and one of her favorite themes? Would I end up getting The Princess Bride for only 3k more US? And then over top of that, Weird Al. I mean, if I already had those two, you'd have to get Weird Al. and then heist for only like 3k more especially if you could get it used from someone for maybe two two and a half that's a hell of a game at one game of the year one toy the year or something game of the year i forget it won multiple things a year it came out so like and then once you have that you can start adding on these smaller games uh like like the third party games you know for just some of them are as little as i think 100 or 200 us so the value proposition has just got I think it's hit the tipping point. I think we've hit the TSN, ESPN 27, TSN turning point, where the value proposition for P3 Multimorphic is now so great that even pinball nerds like me, five, six, seven years ago that said, I like it, but I'll probably never buy one. I'm now seriously like when our kids have moved out, we're empty nesters and we sell the homestead. I truly plan on selling this house for, let's even just say, 300K buying a house for like 150. I don't know if that will happen. Maybe it'll be two, doesn't matter. The point is, I'll have between, Drop Target Danielle totally okay with this 20 to 40 grand to spend on pinball machines and that the whole point In five to eight years from now when we sell off the house I be able to refill a brand new arcade right And a much smaller house probably get a ranch style house not have seven acres to take care of. That's a lot of work. Probably be done with chickens. Probably be done with like doing maple syrup after that many years. Maybe not maple syrup. I like the maple syrup, but no chickens. We want no animals so we can go on trips other than our beautiful dogs, which we can bring with us. And I'll have to make this decision, and especially if I'm going to a smaller house, I'll most likely have room for three to five. Now, I get some people listening to this do have room for 15 to 20. And if you have room for 15 to 20, the value proposition isn't quite as high for a P3 Multimorphic, even though it's still there because you still get four, five, six, seven machines in one. But wherever I'm moving, we'll probably have a very, very, very small extra side bedroom as a spare bedroom and we'll probably have a small bed in it just for friends and family when they come to visit either of our sons if they stay over whatever but in that room I'll maybe have room for I don't know three to five pinball machines well if one of them can house like 15 and by then it's 23 but I don't want to buy all 23 I'm sorry p3 there's maybe like six or seven I would really like to own and a couple of the cheaper ones I would definitely add on to it, right? But by the time that I go to sell the farm and move out of here, there could legitimately be 20 to 25 pinball machines on P3 Multimorphic that I need to own. And this could be the best value proposition ever. If you live in New York City or Chicago or LA or anywhere where rent is astronomical and space is very valued and very low, a P3 Multimorphic might be the only pinball machine you need at this point especially if you only have room if i only had room for two pinball machines i would have my favorite modern stern so i would have like a jaws for like six months to a year sell it off i don't care if i lose a couple hundred bucks i probably would never buy new in box for a jaws pro anyways not at this point but i would buy it and i would sell it for maybe lose two to four hundred dollars maybe make two to four hundred dollars depending on the market then i would buy another modern stern and i would have a p3 multimorphic rate beside it with three, four, five different games. And I just, I'm so proud of these guys. I have to be open and honest and admit to you guys that I'm paid $0.00 by them. I'm not affiliated by them at all. In fact, I've actually spent money even just talking on the phone. Stephen Silver and I had a very long telephone conversation, I believe last summer, last fall, and it was very productive. It was very good. And I learned tons about P3 Multimorphic through that. um Stephen did not ask me to sign an NDA but we're part of the tribe and as tribe members we know we don't really talk about what was said however that was the largest phone bill I've ever received in my life so arguably I'm going the opposite way however if you're at all considering going to buy one of these either go through loser kid or I know a long time ago even drew here on the poor men's pinball network was able to get you a little bit of a better deal so look into don't just go I would look into getting the deal where you're saving like a thousand and they save some money and it helps them out it helps you out but I'm telling you right now this is their moment now is King Kong maybe going to overall be remembered for a better game than this this year it's possible it's possible but I'm telling you King Kong you got some big shoes to fill because Portal is a hit now let's do number one on this list and not just because I'm thinking of Joe Cervino over there at the Pinball Degenerates. What an incredibly fun show. Hoping to see an edited version coming out of that soon. A couple of different people asked me how to go back and watch the, well, at least the last two hours of the award show. You just scroll back to the date of and look at the 9.45 p.m. post. That last two hours has much better audio than the first hour, so I would kind of recommend maybe to jump into that part. Even though you won't get to see the cool part, like, there is some really cool cameos with great sound in the first hour or so, so you could watch that as well but I'm hoping and thinking that Joe and team might come out with like a revised kind of version with a little bit better scrubbed audio if possible um but either way what what a cool fun awesome thing to be part of thank you Joe so much for that and also thank you so much for your tea and coffee order uh don't feel obligated ever to do that of course I really really really appreciate that and uh I love that he said he basically made up the award for me because I've been bugging Joe for like two or three years saying, dude, you've got to have a most degenerate because I definitely win that. And like the one year I was like, you know, I did the pinball podcast. Well, live on the, the roller coaster, that's pretty degenerate. And then, you know, I did, I tried to do a hundred live pinball podcasts at the final Pemberg. I only did 69, but that's pretty degenerate getting done almost 70 interviews in four days. And like, So I've done a lot of degenerate pinball podcasting things. They're not all quality, but there certainly is a lot of quantity. You can't say that if anything else. But number one on the list reminds me of Joe and a little word he calls Tima. Now, is it thematically integrated magical awareness? No, that's what we're hoping to get from Harry Potter. Is it thematically integrated mechanical awesomeness? I think that's what it stands for. I'm probably wrong, but I'll tell you what. Portal has the most thematically integrated mechanical awesomeness of any pinball machine I've ever seen. And that's why I left it as number one on my top five most rad. because it is without a doubt the most choreographed, the most theatrical, all the mechanics and all the different things are all moving at once. Even the lines, even the way that the screen is finally being used the best. The way Final Resistance used the screen in P3 Multimorphic, it showed you where the shots were and kind of worked like inserts. That was great. But what it was kind of missing was like the whole experience that you used to get through something like Weird Al. So now they've integrated it properly, or not properly, but like perfectly. They've made it even better so that now you get the best of both worlds. You can still see the inserts and where the shots go, and it can still tell you what's up with whatever and when the multiball's starting. And wow, those multiballs. Did we only see two multiballs? They were incredible. Oh my God, listen to my voice. You can tell I'm excited. When I get up high like this, I'm really excited. I sound like Mickey Mouse. Woohoo, Minnie, you want to go get goofy? let's go to the store. All right, sorry about that. No singing, I promise. My voice is way, way too shot for that. But here is the Tima. Between the toys, between the callouts, between the artwork being three-tone and matching the game and having pastels and being muted but still awesome, the spinning cube, Marc Silk's Marc Silk as AF voice doing the callouts and the taunts, Scott Denisey doing that banger music okay then having that many toys all integrated then with having Ian Hairwer a long-time tournament player who's way way way better than like 99% of us at pinball and if he wasn't so busy making so many pinball machines his pinball ranking would probably be a lot higher okay he is implementing the rules and helping with the coding and they even talked about how he helped come up with something from um oh what was that really old pinball machine that has the Spanish eyes, the pop bumper in the very middle. I forget. Anyways, the point is, I am so excited to play this. I'm more excited to play this than I have ever been more, than I have been excited to play any pinball machine since Jaws. Straight up. Straight up. I mean, okay, maybe, maybe, X-Men, right up there. Right up there. Right up there. But I've never said that about a P3 Multimorphic, and I didn't know if I would ever do it. So please, get yourself out there, play this pin. It looks great. It looks fun. Congratulations to the whole team. I'm very happy for you. I think that you guys, as Christopher Franchi loves me to say, knocked it out of the park. That's right. You did it. Alright, Pinball Nerds, until next time, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe Portal Pinball and for the love of God, could one or two of you just donate to me so that I can stop talking about it because it's my least favorite month of the year and I'm hoping it'll be less than a month it's only been like a week and a half so far but once we hit that $500 I will shut up my mouth lock the door throw away the key and we can get back to just having fun talking about pinball and uh yeah I'll just say this as just a little carrot in front of the donkey even though my voice is shot even though I got more frogs in there than Harry Potter has on the Hogwarts Express. I'm telling you, I will come back tomorrow for a show. Apparently today, according to a couple other Pinball podcasters, I think I've seen at least three people talk about it now, Medieval Madness is supposed to come out again for like the fourth time or something? I don't know. Medieval Madness, the remake is being remade again by CGC. I thought there was already a Medieval Madness remake, but apparently this is a slightly different one or something. I'm not really sure. But Medieval Madness is supposed to be announced and if even one person donates even one person between now and tomorrow I'll say around noon Eastern Standard Time then that would be the date of the 19th, March 19th if even one person donates I'll be back with the top five rad and bad about that one and if that one person who donates, donates $100 we can all thankfully never hear me ask and beg for any more money again for a very, very, very long time, like until 2026. So until next time, remember to eat, sleep, and breathe. Cube. Squared. Portal.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-14 | Item ID: a6d44380-2e16-46f9-a1ea-d4890be13c6a*